Pat Caputo writes on why Detroit Red Wings could make deep run in Stanley Cup playoffs

Detroit Red Wings forward Luke Glendening, left, and forward Tomas Tatar (21), of Slovakia, celebrate with forward Tomas Jurco (26), also of Slovakia, after Jurco's goal in the third period of an NHL hockey game against the Boston Bruins in Detroit, Mich., Wednesday, April 2, 2014. The Red Wings won 3-2. (AP Photo/Tony Ding)

It wasn’t if the Red Wings made the playoffs, but how far they advanced.

A trip to the conference finals wasn’t good enough, a loss in the second round a terrible occurrence and a first-round ouster, well, utter embarrassment.

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So the last two seasons, as the Red Wings have rallied to stretch their streak of consecutive playoff appearances to 23, have been different.

Both years it didn’t look like the Red Wings would qualify, but somehow they did.

Last year, the Red Wings stunned second-seeded Anaheim in the opening round, and pushed the eventual Stanley Cup champion Chicago Blackhawks to the brink of elimination in a seven-game series.

Can they do it again?

The Red Wings seem to be peaking at the right time with several compelling, playoff-like victories the last month - including over Eastern Conference No.1 seed Boston and No.2 seed Pittsburgh.

The Red Wings will face the Bruins - a physical, yet skilled team with a top defenseman in massive Zdeno Chara and a world-class goalie in Tuukka Rask. It’s a similar scenario to last spring and the opening set vs. the Ducks. It presents a difficult task, but if the Red Wings, as an eight-seed, were to get by the opening round, their new spot in the Eastern Conference will present a less formidable foe in the second round than Chicago did in ‘13.

“I think we’re in a real good spot,” Red Wings’ coach Mike Babcock said. “We have four good lines and a tenacity about us.”

The Red Wings didn’t have their resident stars, Henrik Zetterberg and Pavel Datsyuk, for long spans this season. Their goalie, Jimmy Howard, was often either ailing or ineffective or a combination of both. Johan Franzen, Jonathan Ericsson and Daniel Alfredsson missed numerous games (Ericsson and Zetterberg are still out), and big-money free agent Stephen Weiss contributed little.

The “kids” have come through for the Red Wings. Gustav Nyquist’s goal scoring exploits became the stuff of legends. Tomas Tatar is an exceptionally skilled and persistent player, and potentially a genuine star. Defenseman Denny DeKeyser has steadily improved and become very effective.

There are few elements of sports, which present more “x” factors than the Stanley Cup playoffs, though.

It’s not like the best team in hockey never wins the big prize. The Red Wings, for example, have won four Stanley Cup titles since 1997. Yet, even in their salad days, the Red Wings were knocked off in the first round as a No.1 seed (by Edmonton in 2006) and as a No.2 seed (by Anaheim, coached Babcock, in 2003). And both the lower seeds advanced all the way to the finals those years, not losing until Game 7.

In 2012, an eighth-seed, the Los Angeles Kings, won the Stanley Cup.

A puck is not perfectly round like a ball. It’s flat, has hard edges and takes as many odd as predictable bounces.

The idea in the playoffs is to reduce mistakes and therefore take as much chance out of the equation as possible.

“You have to make sure you are solid defensively in the playoffs, and take care of the puck,” said veteran defenseman Niklas Kronwall. “The focus has to be on us. If we do our best, we can win.”

Nyquist performed well for the Red Wings during the playoffs last season, led Grand Rapids to the American Hockey League title and participated in the gold medal game for Sweden during the Olympics. He has garnered much experience in big games in a short period, and hasn’t flinched. Zetterberg is the Red Wings’ undisputed leader. They could use him, but at least Datsyuk is back. Howard is playing better, and has displayed a tendency to turn in his best hockey, at least most of his career, during the playoffs. Certainly, that was the case last year.

The Red Wings don’t have much margin for error – and know it.

“We can’t cheat the system,” Babcock said.

But if there is an organization that understands itself, and what it takes to get the most from it has to offer, it’s the Red Wings.